Saturday, March 22, 2008

No wonder they think I'm batty

Sorry about the video quality, but these Flying foxes live across the road from my place in Bellingen. Fortunately, the noise is only as loud as this when you are standing among the bats, as I was when I shot this on my little camera. From my house I don't find the noise unpleasant, and it comes in just several sessions a day with greatly reduced volume, even with my windows open. I only noticed the sound for the first few days that I lived here. From sunset to dawn the bats have gone hunting and gathering over quite large distances, so noise is not a problem.

Also, they go away for a few months of the year (and I kinda miss them). Some say there are about 100,000 of them, but there are certainly not as many now as there were 12 months ago. When I lived nearby in 1980, there were very few, so they're still a novelty to me, and I enjoy the sound of their pre-dawn distant chatter -- kinda comforting.

I reckon one gets used to it kinda like listening to white noise. I recall the cicada when I lived in the lower desert. The sound was almost as loud as your bats. And, when the sound stopped, it was like the world came to a screeching stop.It was a bit unsettling for a moment.

Here, I listen to the birds in the aviary chattering away and some really heavy footed pigeons on my roof doing the rumba. I find myself giggling at them and letting my imagination run wild. They're so silly. It's kinda like imagining an old Disney cartoon in Dolby stereo.

Allegedly, we don't have Cicadas here in the San Joaquin Valley, yet I heard them last year. They're noisy things, aren't they? They weren't as noisy as the ones in the low desert but I bet the next time they arise that they'll be even more prominent.

In the low desert, I'd sit nearby outside watching the hubby catch them for our pet raccoon. She loved the crunchy sound they made when she bit into them. Her name was Randi the raccoon.She used to curl up next to me and sleep sometimes but wouldn't sleep with the hubby.

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